Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
Production Assistance: Joel Mann

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Ruth Eveland, Michael Fisher, Claire Fox, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll revisit topics from our show in 2021, talking about the historical and contemporary links between labor organizing and expanding political rights like voting. Is union organizing an important, if not essential, tool in building a vibrant democracy – of people having a voice in their self-governance? What led to the demise of unions over the last half century? What have been the political consequences? Are unions making a comeback? Why is that? What new trends are emerging here in Maine?

Guest/s:
David Madland, Senior Fellow and senior adviser to the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress www.americanprogress.org/people/madland-david/

Arthur Phillips, Economic Policy Analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy www.mecep.org/about/our-teams/

Cynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO. maineaflcio.org/content/32232

To learn more about this topic:
1. Americans’ views of labor unions | Pew Research Center, February, 2024, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/02/01/labor-unions/
2. State worker union filing charges against Mills administration over pay gap | WGME, February, 2024, wgme.com/news/local/state-worker-union-filing-charges-against-mills-administration-over-pay-gap-maine-gov-janet-mills-low-wages-cost-of-living
3. USPS reschedules meeting on Hampden processing facility | WABI, February, 2024, www.wabi.tv/2024/02/01/usps-reschedules-meeting-hampden-processing-facility/
4. Local union president shares concerns about proposed changes to Hampden USPS facility | WABI, January, 2024, www.wabi.tv/2024/01/18/local-union-president-shares-concerns-about-proposed-changes-hampden-usps-facility/?link_id=6&can_id=1905c6b9067a4b4bf8e189b166246f7a&source=email-new-take-action-re-mail-service-changes&email_referrer=email_2215388&email_subject=correction-re-mail-service-changes
5. Union membership grew last year, but only 10% of U.S. workers belong to a union | NPR, January, 2024, www.npr.org/2024/01/23/1226034366/labor-union-membership-uaw-hollywood-workers-strike-gallup
6. Maine’s labor movement sees big shift from small unions | Portland Press Herald, December, 2023, www.pressherald.com/2023/12/04/small-unions-drive-maines-labor-movement-forward/
7. Maine farmworkers deserve equal rights | Bangor Daily News, Food and Medicine Op-ed, December, 2023, www.bangordailynews.com/2023/12/25/opinion/opinion-contributor/maine-farmworkers-equal-rights/
8. UMaine System graduate-student workers win union certification | Mainebiz.biz, October, 2023, www.mainebiz.biz/article/umaine-system-graduate-student-workers-win-union-certification
9. Brief: The state of labor organizing in Maine | MECEP, September, 2023, www.mecep.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-state-of-labor-organizing-in-Maine-Labor-Day-2023.pdf
10. Why Government Unions—Unlike Trade Unions—Corrupt Democracy | TIME April, 2023, time.com/6267979/government-unions-corrupt-democracy/
11. Chipotle agrees to pay $240 K after closing a store that sought to unionize | CBS, March, 2023, www.cbsnews.com/news/chipotle-union-settlement-closing-store-augusta-maine/
12. Chipotle workers in Maine file for chain’s first union election | The Hill, June, 2022, thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-lobbying/3534270-chipotle-workers-in-maine-file-for-chains-first-union-election/
13. House sustains veto of bill to allow Maine farm workers to unionize | Maine Public, January, 2022, www.mainepublic.org/politics/2022-01-26/house-sustains-veto-of-bill-to-allow-maine-farm-workers-to-unionize
14. Re-Union by David Madland | Hardcover | Cornell University Press, 2021, www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501755378/re-union/
15. Democracy, Union Made, Phil Fishman in The American Interest, September 2007, www.the-american-interest.com/2007/09/01/democracy-union-made/

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Claire Fox, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We will talk about the history of the Electoral College and how it's working in the 21st century. What reforms are needed, and which are possible? What is the NPV compact, and how would it work? Is it right for Maine?

Guest/s:
Mike Saxl, former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and Managing Principal of Maine Street Solutions, the leading proponent of the National Popular Vote in Maine www.verrill-law.com/michael-v-saxl/
Kate Shaw, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, co-host of the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny www.law.upenn.edu/faculty/kateshaw

To learn more about this topic:

Our View: It’s time to pick the president by national popular vote | Portland Press Herald, Editorial, January, 2024 www.pressherald.com/2024/01/14/our-view-its-time-to-pick-the-president-by-national-popular-vote-2/
No thanks to national popular vote | Bangor Daily News, Matt Gagnon op-ed, January, 2024, www.bangordailynews.com/2024/01/10/opinion/opinion-contributor/national-popular-vote-problems/
Arguments against national popular vote compact fall short | Bangor Daily News, Amy Fried op-ed, January, 2024, www.bangordailynews.com/2024/01/30/opinion/opinion-contributor/arguments-against-national-popular-vote-compact-fall-short-joam40zk0w/
Yarmouth representative pitches National Popular Vote plan | Spectrum News, January, 2024, spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/politics/2024/01/08/yarmouth-representative-pitches-national-popular-vote-plan-for-presidential-elections
National Popular Vote | National Conference of State Legislatures, December, 2023, shows state-by-state passage, www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/national-popular-vote
Majority of Americans continue to favor moving away from Electoral College | Pew Research, September, 2023, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/25/majority-of-americans-continue-to-favor-moving-away-from-electoral-college/
“A Mystifying and Distorting Factor”: The Electoral College and American Democracy | Michigan Law Review, Katharine Shaw, 2022,
repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8442&context=mlr
The National Popular Vote, Explained | Brennan Center for Justice, December, 2020, www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/national-popular-vote-explained?utm_medium=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_source=PANTHEON_STRIPPED
The Electoral College is flawed — so are the alternatives: Experts | ABC News, December, 2020, abcnews.go.com/Politics/electoral-college-flawed-alternatives/story?id=74708394
Why We Need A National Popular Vote | Robert Reich, m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn8rWMVGlfQ

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Claire Fox, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll talk about the roll-out of semi-open primaries. Maine will be running semi-open primaries for the first time in 2024. We’ll explain to voters what to expect and what important deadlines and new procedures may pertain. And we’ll talk about how semi-open primaries might affect voter behavior and election outcomes.

Guest/s:
Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State www.maine.gov/sos/about/bio.html
Jill Goldthwait, Hancock County journalist and political columnist, former Maine state senator (unenrolled) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Goldthwait
Laurel Harbridge-Yong, Professor of Political Science; Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research; Northwestern University www.ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/faculty-experts/harbridge.html

To learn more about this topic:
1. LWV Of Tennessee | League of Women Voters LWVTN sues over Bona Fide Primary Voting
Law, November, 2023 www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/lwvtn-tennessee-voters-file-federal-lawsuit-challenging-state-bona-fide
2. Understanding the Partisan Divide: How Demographics and Policy Views Shape Party Coalitions | New America, February, 2023 www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/understanding-the-partisan-divide/
3. The Success Story Behind Maine’s Adoption of Semi-Open Primaries | Independent Voter News, August, 2022 ivn.us/posts/the-success-story-behind-maines-adoption-of-semi-open-primaries
4. State Primary Election Systems | National Council of State Legislators, June, 2021 documents.ncsl.org/wwwncsl/Elections/Primary-Types-Table_2021.pdf
5. Why Do Legislators Reject ‘Half-Loaf’ Compromises? | Northwestern Institute for Policy Research, April, 2020 www.ipr.northwestern.edu/news/2020/harbridge-yong-half-loaf-compromises.html
6. Rejecting Compromise: Legislators’ Fear of Primary Voters. Anderson, S., D. Butler, and Harbridge-Yong, Cambridge University Press, 2020 www.cambridge.org/core/books/rejecting-compromise/01F2DA900C72ACF02E1B3ECF4EED43D3
7. LWVME Study Guide on Primaries, 2017-2018 www.lwvme.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Primary_Study_Guide.pdf
8. 9 media myths about independent voters, debunked | Vox, January 2016 www.vox.com/2016/1/22/10814522/independents-voters-facts-myths
9. How Do You Like Me Now? The desirability of Political Independence, Klar S, Krupnikov Y., Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Leads to Political Inaction, Cambridge University Press, 2016. www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/independent-politics/how-do-you-like-me-now-the-desirability-of-political-independence/312BD7BFCC87D43FFACADAA264E261FB

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll talk about what happened in the November 7 election. Who were the winners and losers, and what does it mean for the future?

Guest/s:
Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State www.maine.gov/sos/about/bio.html
Michael Shepherd, Political Editor at the Bangor Daily News www.bangordailynews.com/author/mshepherd/

To learn more about this topic:
Mike Shepherd in the BDN www.bangordailynews.com/2023/11/08/politics/maine-2023-election-surprises-n6hjn1me0n/?mc_cid=3b4ae1f6a5&mc_eid=a2b49da37d
www.bangordailynews.com/2023/11/08/morning-update/here-are-results-of-the-biggest-maine-races-from-tuesdays-election/
www.pressherald.com/2023-election/
www.vote411.org/
www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/ballotquestionsnov2023.html
2023 Citizen’s Guide to the Referendum Election www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/pdf/citizensguide23.pdf
www.mainepublic.org/tags/political-pulse
archives.weru.org/democracy-forum/2023/10/democracy-forum-10-20-23-yikes-8-ballot-questions/
archives.weru.org/democracy-forum/2023/04/democracy-forum-4-21-23-ballot-questions-whose-initiatives-are-they/

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
– Some of them are citizen initiatives; some of them are constitutional amendments. What’s the difference?
– What do they mean, what will they do, where did they come from, who supports and who opposes, and whose money is being spent?

Guest/s:
Will Hayward, Advocacy Program Director, LWVME – www.lwvme.org/lwvme-staff
Steve Mistler, Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent – www.mainepublic.org/people/steve-mistler

To learn more about this topic:
www.lwvme.org/www.vote411.org
www.maine.gov/meopa/
www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/ballotquestionsnov2023.html
www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/pdf/citizensguide23.pdf
www.mainepublic.org/tags/political-pulse
archives.weru.org/democracy-forum/2023/04/democracy-forum-4-21-23-ballot-questions-whose-initiatives-are-they/

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll talk about book banning in an historical and political perspective: tensions between First Amendment rights and rights of parental control; whether and how book bans reflect the tip of the iceberg of other coercive ambitions: controlling ideas, controlling culture, controlling people, etc. What is happening in Maine and around the country?

Guest/s:
1. Lindsay Decker, Librarian at the Fogler Library at the University of Maine and also a member of the Maine Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC).
2. Kasey Meehan, Program Director, Freedom to Read, PEN America.
3. Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.

To learn more about this topic:
Banned Books Week (October 1 – 7, 2023) | ALA
LIVE from NYPL and The Atlantic | Banned: Censorship and Free Expression in America, October 5
Books Unbanned | The Seattle Public Library (spl.org)
Books Unbanned | Brooklyn Public Library (bklynlibrary.org)
Intellectual Freedom – Maine State Library
Florida schools got hundreds of book complaints — mostly from 2 people, August, 2023
Twenty-two challenges to school library books have been filed in Maine since January 2022. Just one book has been removed. | Maine Monitor, August, 2023
The Book Banners on the Left – by Cathy Young | The Bulwark, August, 2023
Inside Moms for Liberty’s summit: Big money and money even bigger conspiracy theories | Media Matters for America, July 2023
You can’t tell the truth about the Holocaust in Poland. Could that happen in the US? | USA Today, July, 2023
How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves | The Conversation, July. 2023

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They?
We’ll talk about the citizen initiative process in Maine: the sheer number of them, the money behind them, their strengths and shortcomings, home-grown vs. “from away.”
How does the initiative process work, and how is it working for Maine?
Can ordinary citizens can still run a ballot question?

Guest/s:
Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State
Todd Donovan, Professor of Political Science, Western Washington University

To learn more about this topic:
As Abortion Measures Loom, GOP Raises New Barriers to Ballot Initiatives | The Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2023
Missouri House Passes Bill Making It Harder for Voters To Amend State Constitution – Democracy Docket, February, 2023
Policy Matters: Ballot initiatives – Press Herald, November 17,2022
League Study On Maine’s Citizens’ Initiatives And People’s Veto Referenda, Fall, 2020
Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects, Joshua J. Dyck & Edward L. Lascher, Jr., Jr., 2019
Democracy Forum – Citizen Initiatives: The Devil’s in the Details, April 19, 2019
Initiative and Referendum Overview and Resources | NCSL
Citizen Initiatives & Peoples Veto | Maine Secretary of State
Citizens as Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States, Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler, 1998

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll talk about whether modern polling techniques have been good for democracy. Is polling a reflection of public opinion; is it shaping public opinion; or is it distorting public opinion? Who is it helping? And how can we be responsible consumers of polling information?

Guest/s:
Ashley Koning, Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Dan Shea, Chair and Professor of Government at Colby College.

To learn more about this topic:
Public Opinion Polling Basics | Pew Research Center
Two Schools of Polling Are Converging: Reflecting on a Tumultuous Decade | The New York Times, May, 2023
How Public Polling Has Changed in the 21st Century | Pew Research Center Methods, April, 2023
Polls’ Representative Samples Often Merit Skepticism | WSJ, April, 2023
The Polls Were Historically Accurate In 2022 | FiveThirtyEight, March, 2023
Some midterm polls were on-target – but finding which pollsters and poll aggregators to believe can be challenging | The Conversation, November, 2022
Seven Ways to Evaluate a Poll | FiveThirtyEight, August, 2021
Harvard experts weigh the good and bad of political predictions | The Harvard Gazette, November, 2020
The Problems Inherent in Political Polling | The New Yorker, March, 2020
Can We Trust the Presidential-Election Polls? | The New Yorker, March 2020

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download